Effective Use of Video Marketing

Updated: June 22, 2010

The videos that you use as part of your overall online marketing strategy should be short, effective and attractive and those videos should be based on keywords and key phrases that are able to endure over a long period of time.

Videos are effective because they catch the attention of your audience much more effectively and quickly than text, photographs or audio. As they say "A picture is worth a thousand words" and when it comes to marketing strategies, videos help to communicate your business's brand and messages in an extremely effective manner.

Many people consult the Internet to help them make a decision about which they might be confused. Videos communicate information in a way that is informative and entertaining and, at the same time, it allows the person who is viewing the video to understand the subject better than they did before watching the video. Video marketing also offers a much wider scope than other forms of online marketing techniques. There are many different ways in which people can access videos. Another advantage that video marketing has over other forms of marketing is that it leaves a more lasting impression on the viewers. If the viewers remember your video, they will be inclined to want what you are offering.

If your marketing does not cause you to stand out from the rest of the crowd, you won't get anywhere. If you focus your headlines on really grabbing your audience in an exciting way (and there are several methods for capturing your audience's attention, such as using humor, shock, etc), you will capture the attention of a large number of people before you know it.

Before the tips are discussed here, remember that you need to lay some groundwork for making videos, which you will include in your Web presence. One of the first things that you should remember is to have good light for when you are shooting your videos. Additionally, you should have decent equipment (not necessarily expensive, professional equipment) that produces results that you are comfortable posting online.

The following are tips that will help you to use video marketing effectively for your business:

Short videos: Make sure that your videos (whether you post them on your own website or a website like YouTube) are no more than 5 or 6 minutes long. If you have a video topic that you feel needs to be expanded way beyond the 5 or 6 minutes, it is a good idea to do a series of videos to cover the entire topic. People will be more inclined to watch and will really get a lot out of your videos if you feed them to your audience in small doses.

Sales pages: It is sensible to post your videos on your sales pages and to take that opportunity to discuss your products and their benefits or some business opportunity that you are offering to others. The video is helpful in making your potential customers comfortable and the points that you make in your video about your products are reinforced about your sales letter.

Key words: Search engines pay a great deal of attention to videos. When the search engines are looking at content and figuring out how to rank the various websites and their content, it is essential to do everything possible to make sure that your website appears as high as possible in the search engine rankings. You should do research to make sure that the keywords that you use in your content is optimum. You should choose keywords that will attract the kinds of leads and traffic that you want to pay attention to you and your business. Try to find out what your target audience is interested in and what they are looking for. Make sure that you include your keywords in headings, tags and resource boxes.

Clear structure and purpose: By using the appropriate keywords, you are ensuring that your video will be targeted properly. You need to make sure that your video answers the questions that your audience is thinking about when they start searching for answers. You need to make your communication and your content as clear as possible at all times.

Always make sure that you focus on your topic and don't digress. This will ensure that your videos are giving a lot of value to others. Before you start shooting your video, it might be helpful for you to write an outline of sorts. This will make it easier for you to stay focused on your topic. Use a script, if you feel that it helps you. You can also mention links to other videos that you feel are valuable on the same topic if you feel that your audience will benefit from them.

Look straight into the camera: The whole reason why you are making the video is so that you can connect with your audience. You are connecting with them by the topic that you choose for your video as well as the way in which you communicate the information on the video. Always bear in mind that when you are shooting a video, you are actually speaking to other people. You must always keep in mind that the purpose of the video is to solve their problems. Real people have real needs and wants. They also have real fears and real dreams. If you follow your outline or script, which you should place right next to the camera for easy reading, you always appear to be looking directly into the camera.

Call to action: The call to action on your video should be very precise and short. It is extremely important to communicate clearly to your audience about what you want them to do after hearing the Call to Action. When it comes to your Call to Action, you shouldn't give your audience a lot of options from which to choose. It will just confuse them.

Comments on your video: Video is a very personal and a very social means of communication. Your goal in making the video, of course, is to create as much buzz as possible. Once your audience has become interested in your video, they are likely to return to find out what comments other people have left about the video. When people leave comments, they often leave tips in those comments. The more comments people leave, the more potential value the discussions have.

Write content about your video: It is a wonderful idea to write a blog article on the same topic as your video. Once you have written the article, make sure to add the link to your video to the article. You will be surprised at how much mileage you will get out of it. If you have a substantial list of contacts, you should send them an Email to let them know about the new video that you have just posted. In the Email, ask them to pass the information along to their contacts. This will cause your video to go viral and it will reach well beyond your own sphere of influence.

Link to other content: You should get as much use out of your video as possible. You can marry different types of marketing by using the link to your video. All you need to do is share the link with all of your contacts and all of the different marketing methods that you use for your business. You need to make full use of all of your social media channels. Post the link to your video anywhere and everywhere. All places are appropriate.

Recycling your video: In addition to sharing your video on the various social media channels, you can also put your video on a CD or DVD and hand it out. You can give it away for free and ask for contact information or some other Call to Action in return.

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